A forecast tells you it might storm. Sports Safe tells you when to clear the field.
Free weather apps are built for everyone's forecast. Sports Safe is built for the people responsible for a field full of athletes, and for the rules they play under.
Side by side
Sports Safe and a free weather app
Free weather apps vary a lot. These are the differences that hold for most of them.
Built for
Sports Safe: Deciding when to clear a field and when it's safe to return.
A free weather app: Everyday forecasts for wherever you are.
Lightning
Sports Safe: Strike by strike distance to each monitored field, a clear the field radius you set from 6 to 15 miles, and an all clear only after 30 minutes with no strikes inside it.
A free weather app: Varies by app. Some show lightning on a map or send nearby alerts, but a clear the field radius and a return to play time for a specific field are usually not part of it.
Heat
Sports Safe: Estimated WBGT for each field, checked against your state's heat chart where Sports Safe has one, with the rest breaks and limits for that band.
A free weather app: Usually temperature and heat index. Many state athletic heat policies are written in WBGT.
Forecasts
Sports Safe: WBGT, heat index, UV, and chance of rain for each field, for the next 12 hours, 24 hours, or 5 days, with the hours thunderstorms are expected marked.
A free weather app: Hourly and daily forecasts, usually temperature, rain, and UV for where you are or a saved place. WBGT forecasts are less common.
Fields
Sports Safe: Every field you monitor, each with its own alert schedule, so alerts arrive during practice and stay quiet when nobody is there.
A free weather app: Usually your current location and a list of saved places.
Who gets alerted
Sports Safe: Every admin covering that field, each choosing their own alerts, plus team messages to athletes and families.
A free weather app: The person who installed the app.
On silent
Sports Safe: On iPhone, clear the field alerts can sound even on silent or in Do Not Disturb, once you allow them.
A free weather app: Usually follows your phone's silent and Focus settings.
Records
Sports Safe: On the Organization plan, a locked, timestamped log of WBGT checks you can export.
A free weather app: Not usually.
Cost
Sports Safe: Free to try. Monitoring and alerts start with the Personal plan at $5.99 a month.
A free weather app: Free.
Straight talk
When a free app is enough
Planning ahead
Checking whether Saturday looks stormy, or what to wear to a game? A free forecast app does that well. Sports Safe forecasts too, with WBGT, heat index, UV, and rain for each of your fields over the next 12 hours, 24 hours, or 5 days, so you can plan practice around the heat as well as the rain.
Responsible for a field
When you are the one who has to clear a field, decide when play resumes, and follow your state's heat rules, you need alerts built around that field and that decision. That's Sports Safe.
FAQ
Common questions
Is a free weather app good enough for lightning safety?
It can tell you a storm is coming. What it usually can't do is tell you, for a specific field, that a strike landed inside the radius your program uses and that the field has to stay closed until 30 minutes after the last one. That decision, and the all clear, is what Sports Safe is built around.
Why does WBGT matter if my weather app shows the heat index?
Heat index uses temperature and humidity measured in the shade. WBGT also accounts for sun and wind, which is why many state athletic associations write their heat rules in WBGT. Sports Safe estimates WBGT for each field and shows what your state's chart calls for at that number.
Can I keep using my weather app?
Yes. Sports Safe also forecasts WBGT, heat index, UV, and rain for each field over the next 12 hours, 24 hours, or 5 days, but it is built for the moment a decision has to be made at a field, and for making sure the right people hear about it.